Line breakdowns left Manning with no chance

February 03, 2014|Reuters

The Sports Xchange

By Derek Harper, The Sports Xchange

Line breakdowns left Manning with no chance

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- He authored 55 touchdown passes during the regular season while throwing for 5,477 yards, both NFL records, but a day after winning his fifth league Most Valuable Player award, Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning was besieged by the Seattle Seahawks.

To be fair to Manning, his offensive line was overwhelmed from the start of Denver's shocking 43-8 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday in Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium. However, it was Manning's two first-half interceptions that transformed a bad start into a drubbing by halftime.

The Broncos' offense was out of sync from the start, with a bad snap on the first play of the game leading to a 2-0 deficit. Manning finished with a Super Bowl-record 34 completions for 280 yards, but the Broncos didn't get on the scoreboard until the final play of the third quarter.

After the game, Manning took offense to the notion that his team was embarrassed.

"From the get go, give them a safety, not the way you want to start a game, and for whatever reason, we couldn't get much going after that," he said. "But I give Seattle a lot of credit. They are an excellent football team and they caused a lot of our mistakes, and at the same time, we just didn't play well tonight.

"They executed better than we did. It's not embarrassing at all. I would never use that word. There's a lot of professional football players in that locker room that put in a lot of hard work to be here, to play in that game, and the word 'embarrassing' is an insulting word, to tell you the truth."

Manning brushed off questions all week about the importance of a second Super Bowl title to his legacy. Sunday night, the story was more the dominance of Seattle's defense than the Denver quarterback's place in history. Still, with all due respect to Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman and his media-shy teammate, running back Marshawn Lynch, Manning was the story leading up to the game.

The Broncos knew the Seahawks had the league's top-ranked defense. What they appeared unprepared for was the speed and toughness of the unit as a whole.

"We knew they were an excellent defense as far as the scheme we thought they were going to play," Manning said. "I think we played a great football team. We needed to play really well in order to win, and we didn't come anywhere close to that."

"You do what you're capable of," Broncos coach John Fox said. "We mixed and matched that some. (The Seahawks) played very well."

While the Seahawks finished with just one sack -- which Clemons recorded on a fourth down when the outcome already was determined -- Manning was not able to sustain drives in the first half. He was under constant pressure, and he grossly overthrew his receiver on a first-quarter interception, then had his right arm hit by Avril in the second quarter, leading to a pop-up pass that was fielded by Seahawks linebacker Malcolm Smith and returned 69 yards for a touchdown.

The Seahawks entered the game quietly confident they could jam Denver's receivers at the line and pressure the pocket. Defensive coordinator Dan Quinn said the goal was to send waves of defensive linemen at Manning and make him slow his delivery -- as quick as 2.2 seconds, according to Quinn -- just a tick.

"If it's at 2.6 or 2.7 (seconds), that's when you can get the hits," Quinn said. "We knew they'd have to deal with us, in terms of being fired up."

Manning admitted the throngs of Seahawks fans often made it difficult for the offense to hear his cadence. By the time he found some rhythm with underneath passes in the second half, the game had long since snowballed out of control.

"Absolutely not," tight end Julius Thomas said when asked if it was fair to pin the loss on Manning. "In order to point the finger at Peyton Manning, you would be neglecting all the things he did this season to get us to this point. By no means are we blaming Peyton for anything. He is the reason we are here, he is our leader, and we are going to stand by him 100 percent."

The Broncos became the first team to lose five times in the Super Bowl, and vice president of football operations John Elway lost for a third time overall, the first time as an executive. Elway, who has Manning's signed five-year contract framed in his office and considers the 37-year-old, five-time MVP a friend more than an employee, said there isn't much he can say to Manning.

"It was a great year," Elway said. "It's always disappointing. Only one team is happy at the end of the year, and you've got to give them a lot of credit. They played well. They took advantage of mistakes we made. I'm proud of these guys."

Next will be a March exam on Manning's surgically repaired neck, followed by a decision on whether Manning, who turns 38 next month, will return for another season. It is difficult to envision him walking away after a record-setting season that ended in a bitter defeat.

"It's disappointing for our entire team," Manning said. "We worked hard to get to this point and overcame a lot of obstacles to be here, putting in a lot of hard work. It is a really good thing just to have this opportunity, but certainly to finish this way is very disappointing. It is not an easy pill to swallow, but eventually, you have to."